CAIT wants 7-day ban on Amazon for violating country of origin rule

The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) is not satisfied with the penalty of Rs 25,000 imposed on Amazon India for not providing the compulsory 'Country of Origin' details on products displayed by the e-commerce website. CAIT want Ministry of Consumer Affairs to exact harsher punishment on Amazon India for violating norms.

CAIT has stated that the fundamental principle behind charging fines is to make the offender realise their mistakes and motivate them to not commit the same offence again. However, a small penalty of just Rs 25,000 has no significance and the offence committed by Amazon India demanded a seven-day ban on the e-commerce giant and other companies who are continuously offending the norms, the trader body said. "Let there be an exemplary punishment," demanded CAIT.

CAIT National President BC Bhartia and Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal, in a statement released on Friday, said that penalising Amazon India with such a small amount for violating Indian law is nothing but a mockery of the country's judicial and administrative system.

They also said, "The punishment should be equal to the damage caused by them on our economy and it should have reflected a clear message to the foreign e-commerce players."

They added that in view of the size of the e-commerce industry in India and the Prime Minister's call for "Atmanirbhar Bharat", the description of the 'country of origin' is now mandatory. They believe that disobeying this law for the first time should result in a ban of seven days for the offender and if the offence is repeated again that the offender should be banned for 15 days. If the offender still continues to violate the norm then a complete ban should be imposed till the time the company complies with the law.

"The government is custodian of the laws framed by it and therefore, it is the duty of the government to maintain sanctity and strict implementation of the law both in letter and spirit," Bhartia and Khandelwal added. They said that charging an e-commerce giant like Amazon India just Rs 25,000, for violating norms, is more like compromising with the law.

"Amazon can go on disobeying the law as for them the fine amount is very small. They further added that there is some vested interest behind the continuous violation of the Indian law by these e-commerce companies and, hence the fine imposed needs to be steep," said Bhartia and Khandelwal. They also stated that law should be equal for all companies and that other e-commerce platforms such as Flipkart, Myntra should also be penalised for violating norms.

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